Alex
by TheDoctorHasPie
Summary: Alex's brother, Percy gets kidnapped and everyone loses their mind. Queen Hera has her own set of plans and Mother Nature is in a bad mood. As if being a child of Poseidon wasn't troublesome enough.
1. Into The Blue

Under water, things didn't seem so bad. When you're surrounded by blue, how can things ever be bad?  
I knew there was a war going on on land, but traveling at 50 miles an hour, enveloped in water, you hardly seemed to notice. To me, the ocean always had this peaceful quality to it. Never changing. Steady. Everything was in the hands of Mother Nature. The proverbial Mother Nature of course. The real one didn't have anything to do with it. Gaia didn't care if everything went to shit or not.  
The fight of a lifetime was going on at that moment and I wasn't in it. My friends and family were in trouble and I wasn't fast enough to be there and help them.

It all started when a goddess woke up from a long nap and decided she was pissed off. As usual, my brother got involved because he's powerful and stuff. A born leader, loyal, a demigod, bad ass and so on. And as usual, I was there to protect his ass while he goes off being the son of Poseidon and all that. This is the story so far:

Eight months ago, my half-brother Perseus Jackson, disappeared and everyone had a meltdown. Including me. His girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, daughter of the goddess Athena, went on a quest to find him while me and my ... friend, Luke, son of Hermes, did the same.  
Only difference was: She got a prophecy, and I didn't, seeing as I'm not technically...human.  
Anyway, we tried to ask the gods for help but they didn't answer. They had closed off Olympus and Zeus decided no interaction between gods and demigods was allowed. So we were on our own. When Annabeth came back from her quest, two months later, she brought back some friends.  
A handsome blonde guy named Jason, a pretty brunette named Piper and a...funny guy named Leo. It took us a while to figure this out but basically: Jason was the son of Zeus, Piper a daughter of Aphrodite and Leo a son of Hephaestus.  
Then they went off on their own quest, slayed a giant, killed some monsters, released Hera, Queen of the gods from a magic cage with an electrical saw. You know, the usual. In the meantime, I was scouring the globe, land and water, to find my little brother.  
Not that anyone noticed. The three musketeers came back from their little trip and brought back some pretty useful information.  
Turns out Jason was Roman and his pops was Jupiter, Zeus's Roman form. He was from a Roman demigod-camp called Camp Jupiter and he was the long lost brother of Thalia Grace(who we all know and love). He figured since he was sent to the Greek camp by Hera, Percy must've been sent to the Roman camp by Juno, Hera's Roman form. Of course this was all new to us Greeks so we were skeptical at first.  
Then the funny kid, Leo decided we should all start building a flying warship to visit the Romans. (When I say 'we', I mean the handy people.)  
So that's pretty much what happened. The kids from the Greek Camp Half-Blood built a shiny flying boat and were heading towards the Roman Camp Jupiter, hoping they wouldn't get blown out of the air.

Being a child of Poseidon, I didn't risk the air travel. Zeus didn't like his brother's kids invading his territory so I took the liberty and stole a car.  
I stopped at a small river in Berkeley, San Francisco after driving five hours straight. Needless to say, I was exhausted.  
I sat down on my knees by the river and hovered my hands over the surface. I instinctively knew the water ran due North and then circled back South after a few miles. My eyelids started feeling heavy and I put my hands in the water. Immediately, I felt an energy surge.  
The water renewed my power and I felt better than ever. This is a gift every child of the Sea God gets.  
It comes in handy when you're in need of a quick boost. I hated being on land for so long so I decided to risk it. The mortals would probably recognize me as a fish through The Mist anyway.  
The Mist is like a magical vale protecting mortals from the dangerous world of gods and demigods.  
There are some unlucky few who can see through it but this isn't something I would wish on anybody.  
I got up on my feet and stepped back in the '67 Shelby GT500 I had picked up somewhere in downtown Manhattan.  
Why would you have such a nice car in Manhattan anyway? To sit in traffic? What a waste. I parked the vehicle beside a tree under some low hanging branches and tried to squeeze between the car door and a giant oak tree.  
After my minor struggle with nature, I made my way back towards the stream and put my brown satchel on the ground.  
It was covered in stickers, pin-back buttons and about two dozen names written in black marker which I had collected over the years.  
The first name ever to be written on it was from my dad when he gave it to me. It wasn't really a name, it said 'From Dad'.  
It was the first and last gift he ever gave me and I protected it with my life. The writing hadn't even faded like all the rest of the names.  
I figured it was probably written with some weird magical sharpie. After checking if no one was around.  
I took off my pants, shoes and my orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, revealing a golden coloured breastplate. It looked ridiculous.  
Me, standing there in a metal covering in nothing but underwear and a Celestial Bronze necklace.  
I stuffed my clothes in the bag, scanned the area one last time and jumped into the blue.


	2. Savior

The moment my body hit the water, scales started forming on my feet and legs. My lower body started moving simultaneously.  
The water tickled in my throat. There was a brief moment when the air was sucked out of my lungs and most people would have started panicking, but then they adjusted to the lack of air and the slight drowning sensation disappeared. I bended the water so that a small air bubble protected my satchel containing the few items I possessed. Clothes, a couple of fake ID's and a few pictures. The pictures were dangerous to keep but I couldn't help it. I never had a lot of family or friends and they reminded me I had someone to fight for. If enemies got there hands on them, they would immediately know who to kill to get back at me. Most of them were from those photo booths at the mall.

'Come on, Perce! Just one picture!' I grabbed him by the wrist. We were being chased by a gryffon only five minutes earlier but I was already over that. Me and my brother had just slipped around a corner to avoid the mall cops and ended up standing in front of a photo booth. Behind us, we heard some kids crying, parents trying to calm them down and about four security guards asking people where the two delinquents went.  
I didn't know what they saw us do but It wasn't good, that's for sure. That's the one thing The Mist didn't hide. Who was to blame. It could make people see a pigeon instead of a giant lion with the head, claws and wings of an eagle, flying around Macy's, but making it _not_ look as though two kids just killed a helpless bird in the middle of a crowd, was too difficult to manage. It was one of those rare days when just the two of us went outside the camp. About two months earlier, Poseidon decided to drop the bomb on me. 'Hey, just popping by to tell you you've got a demigod brother. Bye!' It was quite a shock but we were both pretty psyched. I'd never really had any family (worth mentioning) and he had only ever had his mom. But anyway, we got along great.

'Seriously? What are you, twelve?' Percy said, but he let me drag him behind me.

'I'm 78 actually.' I said as I pushed him in front of the lens. I was born, November third 1935 but I looked like a twenty year old. Thank the gods for that. It would've been awkward if I actually looked like I could be his grandmother.  
Percy took off his backpack and put it by his feet.

'Well, come on then.' He said.  
I squeezed in beside him and twenty minutes later we were sitting in a taxi back to Camp Half-Blood, me holding a photo-strip and him laughing at the weird faces we had made on it.

I was whirring through the water at a mere 50 miles an hour when my vision got blurred. That was weird because I could normally see perfectly in every type of water, no matter how polluted. A metallic taste filled my mouth and I immediately realized what it was. Jason had mentioned that his people might not welcome the Greeks but I had never thought they would kill each other. I felt a tugging sensation in my stomach and kicked it up a notch.  
I hoped I wasn't too late and I didn't arrive at a Roman/Greek slaughtering. Trying to navigate through the blood was harder then I had initially thought. I could barely see my own hands in front of me. Liters of this stuff must have spilled into the river, I thought. Hundreds of people must have died. I knew It couldn't have been the bad guys because the bad guys were monsters and they just dissolved into dust when you stabbed them, ergo... etc, etc. After a few miles the red liquid started getting thicker and thicker. It was nearly impossible to see anything when I finally decided to come up for some of that air I didn't need.

The first thing I saw was not the smoke plumes coming from the city nearby. Or the scorch marks on the grass. Or even the giant elephant that was being cleaned by some kids in togas. Wait...no that _was_ the first thing I saw. Two of them were trying to keep the giant still. The one who looked to be about fourteen was distracting it by talking non-stop to it in a soothing tone, petting it's trunk. Next to him, a blonde girl was feeding it chunks of tree bark and branches. Seven tons of grey sat in between them and two other people. The elephant was wearing a black bulletproof vest.  
A piece of it had been torn off so the letters that were left on it spelled 'ANT'. There had been a battle here and the elephant had got a piece of it. Or _it_ got a piece of the elephant. Looking down at it's left front leg, I saw a huge cut. Blood was pouring out into the river and one guy was cleaning the wound out with a hose. He was pretty built but as usual no one's perfect so something had to give. His face was all bashed up from years of training and battles and the last one had taken its toll too. He had a fresh cut on his cheek and a black eye. I saw it had already started healing because the edges were turning yellow and the swelling on his eye had lessened so he could open it up completely. Punching bag yelled something inaudible and another came out from behind the giant. A familiar face popped up and my heart nearly leaped out of my chest. My half-brother, Tyson started tending the elephant's wound as the first guy turned off the hose.

'Tyson!' I yelled. I was still submerged in water from the neck down so he didn't see me at first. His eyes scanned the area and when he noticed me, he squeaked so load the elephant almost trampled him. Luckily, cyclopes are pretty strong so he just pushed the giants leg away with one hand. Tyson started running towards me. I gathered some water underneath me and pushed myself up. When I landed on the scorched grass, my scaly tail had disappeared and I looked like a regular human again. Toes and all. I had barely gained some stability when Tyson slammed into me. He wrapped his arms around me so tight I could barely breathe. Luckily, he had learned to control his enthusiasm a bit more or things could've been way worse. Tyson lifted me off my feet and yelled: 'Lexie!' and almost chattered my eardrums.

'Tyson...can't breathe...' Tyson let go and started jumping up and down in front of me.  
'Lexie's here!' He yelled.  
'I've missed you too, big guy.' I smiled. At first it was kind of weird to have Tyson as a half-brother. Cyclopes were generally seen as big dangerous brutes but Tyson wasn't any of these. He was only half cyclops so he was short for his kind, but he was still 6'3 and had one giant eye in the middle of his forehead which made most humans dislike him. They couldn't see he had only one eye because of The Mist but they could sense something was off. Once I got to know Tyson, he was the sweetest guy in the world. He could get excited like an eight year old but he could handle any dangerous situation.

While Tyson was squeezing the life out of me, the three Romans had instinctively drawn their swords.  
'Drop your weapon!' Punching Bag yelled. He was holding a strange sword. It was long and sharply curved. _An assassins weapon, _I thought. It was called a sica. I had done my research into Roman weapons the moment I found out Hera had sent my brother to Camp Jupiter. The only thing I remembered about this weapon was that it wasn't even a Roman sword but an Illyrian sword and it was mostly used by 'criminals' in ancient Rome. _Everybody must really love this guy, _I thought.  
'Drop your weapon!' He yelled again. I looked at the sword strapped to my side. I glanced at Tyson and he gave me a look which basically said _Just do it. These dicks don't mess around. _Okay, he probably wouldn't be thinking _that _exactly but I got the idea. I put my hand on the hilt of my sword and pulled it out. The girl flinched when I threw it at her feet and took a step back. I suppressed a smile. _Sotíras _had that effect on people. It's blade was made from pure Celestial Bronze. Every demigod's weapon was made of this metal but it was impossible to find it in its purest form on himself had given it to me on Mount Olympus as a reward for saving his demigod daugter, Thalia. I was pretty proud of that. Not a lot of people get Zeus's gratitude. _Percy. _  
Tyson held his arm out in front of me.  
'No! She is my sister! She is good!' He shouted.  
'Doesn't matter.', The youngest guy said. 'She entered our Camp uninvited and there are no weapons allowed inside The Pomerian Line.'  
'The what...?' I asked.  
'The Pomerian Line, young lady!' The voice came from behind me. I turned around and was slightly confused. No one was there. At least, no _person _was there. A giant statue, made of only the upper-body of a man and no arms, was looking at me with great distaste which made me a bit uncomfortable. I was trying to decide whether I was imagining this when the statue spoke again.  
'Well?' It said.  
'Uhh...' I had no idea what he expected me to say.  
'What is your _name_, water creature?' He pressed.  
'Uhh, Alex...sir?'  
'Are you _asking _me or _telling_ me?' The statue requested, 'And I prefer it if you give me your full name. What are you, a savage?'  
I was getting a bit irritated now.  
'My name is Alexandra, which _is _my full name, _sir.' _I said.  
'Marvelous! This way please.' He said and presumably pointed in a direction. Luckily, Tyson guided me toward the city which avoided _that _awkward conversation.

I had little time to enjoy the city because the toga-kids kept pushing me forward. Trying to ignore the sword Punching Bag was pointing at my face, I asked Tyson where we were going.  
'To talk to their..uhh...prater, Reyna.' He said.  
'Praetor.' The blonde girl corrected.  
'Yes, right. She is the boss and tells the Romans what to do.' Tyson continued.  
'Okay...' This didn't really answer my question but I decided to wait and see for myself.

Walking through a city guarded by a cyclops and three kids in togas handling swords was bound to draw _some_ attention but this was getting ridiculous. Dozens of people were standing beside the road looking at me. People of all ages, whole families lived here. At Camp Half-Blood demigods either left the Camp after highschool or stayed on as counselor. I couldn't imagine raising a family. Being constantly attacked by mythical monsters doesn't really encourage one to settle down and have some babies. 'He's a Lar. Ignore him.' The blonde girl whispered.  
I didn't know what she meant but then a short potbellied man approached. He looked old and well...see-through.  
He was a ghost. Or what did the girl say?_ Lar? _  
'Reyna has already been informed. I would hurry If I were you.' The Lar spoke to my guards.  
'Thank you so much, Vitellius.' The youngest said sarcastically. He looked the old man in the eye for just a moment right before stepping through him. Vitellius's form flickered.  
I heard him mumble something like _In my time... _and then he disappeared.  
The other Lares started whispering to each other. Sometimes I would catch a word but they all spoke Latin so I didn't understand.  
One word I _did_ understand and it didn't exactly comfort me. Every time my eyes locked with a Lar's, it would recoil and say _graceus. _Greek.  
Though it was like they weren't sure if that was true. The humans started to leave. They didn't seem to be interested anymore when they saw I was just one girl.  
I wondered if they'd seen this before. A strange Greek wandering through their city.


	3. Lucky Break

The growls of two metal dogs woke me up from my daydream.  
I hadn't noticed we had stopped in front of a massive white stone building with giant columns.  
The dogs, automatons, came bounding down the white marble stairs. One was golden, the other silver. The building vaguely resembled the Parthenon. But then again everything with collumns resembled the Parthenon to me. Annabeth was the future architect.  
She would have already started giving me a lecture about how the Parthenon was Greek and not Roman but that ancient Roman architecture was influenced by the Greeks because they migrated to Italy during the rise of the Roman Empire but that the Romans added more ornamentation to columns than Greeks. Anyway, she wasn't here so I didn't know all this.

'Beautiful, isn't it?' A girl, she looked about 17, had come outside after the automaton dogs.  
Her dark brown, curly locks fell over her shoulders. When I looked into her black eyes, it was like staring into the abyss. I instantly disliked her.

'Yes it is. I would appreciate its beauty even more if I didn't have the point of a sword in my face.' I said.  
'Yes, of course, Alexandra was it?' She said and waved off my dutiful guard.  
Punchy lowered his sword and took a step back.  
Tyson gave him an awkward grin. They must have known each other well.  
'You know my name? Wow, news travels fast around here.' I said while trying to ignore the automatons by her side.  
'Terminus told me.' She said, 'He also told me you carry a peculiar weapon.' The girl held out her arm to lead me inside the 'Parthenon'. I followed. Tyson tried to follow too but Reyna gave him a _best not, dear _look.  
'Terminus? You mean the statue?' I had been wondering when that was going to be explained.  
'Yes,' the girl smiled. 'He's a god. He guards The Line.' She said as if that explained everything. 'Now, about your sword...' She continued.  
'It's mine and If you would be so kind as to give it back to me.' I said. I didn't want to tell her anything about me. I didn't even know if she could be trusted.  
'I'm sorry. That's impossible. There are no weapons allowed inside The Pomerian Line.' She answered and sat down on a chair in the middle of the building. Inside, it was even more beautiful. The ceiling was so high the room echoed a bit. On each side, long wooden benches were up against the walls like they had at the Coliseum.  
'I've heard that. Then let me ask you a question...' What was her name again? As if she had read my mind the girl said: 'Reyna.'  
'Reyna.' I continued, 'If there are no weapons allowed inside this Line, why do Elephant-cleaners have swords?'  
'Good point.' Reyna said, 'We were recently attacked, and the lake you popped out of is on the edge of The Line. Terminus is a reasonable statue.  
He made an exception for their safety. I assure you, Alexandra, your sword will not be touched.'  
'Of course it won't.' I said, 'But don't pretend it's of your own accord.' _Sotíras _shouldn't be touched by anyone that wasn't me. And I think Reyna had already come to that conclusion because she changed the subject.  
'I have two questions for you.' She said, 'One: Why are you here? And two: How did you get into our Camp undetected?' I thought about just lying to her but I had a feeling I didn't have to. And also, her metal canines didn't look very friendly.

'Look, I don't want any trouble okay. I just came here because I need to see my brother. As for your second question, I have no idea. It didn't come into any trouble when I crossed your borders.' I shrugged as If it were nothing. The truth was: I did feel something trying to expel me from the river. I had found It very strange but disregarded it because the weird feeling stopped almost immediately.

'I very much doubt that but nevertheless, you did get though which means Terminus must've known you were a friendly. I, however, am not convinced just yet.' Reyna readjusted herself in the senate chair and leaned forward. Her Automatons followed her every move, waiting for the kill-order. Luckily for me, It didn't come and the Praetor continued: 'Now, as for your brother. I don't believe you would have a demigod sibling. By my knowledge, and Terminus's, you are a creature of the sea, are you not? Therefor, you cannot have a Roman demigod brother. Roman's don't like the ocean very much, you see.' Reyna looked so confident in her reasoning I wanted to smack her in the face.

The thing that withheld me from doing just that , was the fact that she emphasized 'Roman' like she was waiting for me to confess in a sudden burst of know-it-allness that _I don't have a Roman brother, woman! I'm Greek all the way! Now give me Perseus Jackson or I'll call upon the wrath of my Uncle Hades and smite you all! _  
Instead I said: 'Nice deductive work, Nancy Drew. Now, If you don't mind, I'll be on my way.' I had had enough. While I had been wasting my time, trying to be nice, the Argo II was on it's way.  
The crew, expecting me to make an alliance with the Romans so the flying warship could land with no problem and Luke, expecting me to...not...die. Annabeth would have to wait.  
I turned my back on Reyna and casually walked toward the exit.  
The Praetor might not had seen this coming, but her puppies did.  
The automatons tried to bite me in the ankels but failed miserably.  
In a flash, I turned round and yelled: 'Command sequence: Daedalus Twenty-Four. Deactivate!' Amazingly it actually worked.  
Believe it or not, I wasn't really counting on that.  
The gold and silver automaton's eyes went dark and they fell to the ground.

Annabeth and Percy had once activated the hidden automatons disguised as statues in New York during the Titan War. When Daedalus gave his laptop to Annabeth before he died she'd studied it intensely.  
She didn't really talk about it much because the information on it was endless and it took a long time to figure out even a few of Daedalus's schematics.  
One thing Annabeth _did _tell me was the deactivation-code for most basic automatons.  
You might not think metal dogs are "basic" but in comparison to a giant bull or flying dragon, they really are.  
Reyna hadn't moved a muscle. For a second we looked at each other in amazement.  
I didn't really know what to do so I just turned and ran.

The afternoon sun blinded me as I bounded down the white marble stairs outside the senate building.  
I had no idea where to go so I headed west down a random path. I came by a sign which read _Via Praetoria._ That sounded fancy enough for the Romans so I kept going. Halfway down the path I came by a road which led back to the river. I ignored it. The last thing I wanted to do now was leave.  
I needed to find Percy. I felt a tugging sensation in my gut like I did when controlling the water.  
But there wasn't any water in sight and this usually didn't happen involuntary.

On my right, the grass had changed into stone and dirt. The ground was uprooted. Swords and peaces of armor lay scattered around and a few soldiers were grimly collecting them. A small stone on the ground read _Field of Mars. _I decided not to hang around there. Mars aka Ares wasn't a _huge _fan of me.  
I hadn't done anything to turn him against me but, of course, Percy had.  
A few soldiers on the field looked up as I ran by. I probably stood out a bit because I was the only one not wearing one of those weird-looking togas.

'Mornin'!' I yelled and saluted at them.  
An angry mob had formed behind me. I heard Reyna yelling in the distance with her dogs barking beside her. Seems she had figured out how to reactivate them. A couple of other Romans were running behind her. I couldn't understand their screaming but I got the idea and kicked it up a notch.  
A few yards in front of me the _Via Praetoria _ended.  
The gates to the next town square were open and I could see smaller buildings than around the Senate House. I couldn't see any soldiers at first sight so I entered and hid inside the nearest house. I ducked in front of a small window just enough so I could see the gate entrance.  
I saw the automaton dogs first.

It seemed like I was found right there but the dogs looked confused. I held my breath. Their first instinct was to go toward the house I was in, but then they caught a different scent. It was only now that I heard laughter coming from across the road.

'Aurum! Argentum!' Reyna appeared. The dogs didn't pay any attention to her and instead ran toward the laughter.  
Reyna mistakenly saw this as _Hey, we found her! _and followed them while beckoning her foot soldiers to do the same. _Lucky break._


End file.
